Saturday, March 31, 2012

A supermarket in upstate New York has posted a sign on one of its checkout lines asking customers purchasing alcohol or pork to please use a different register. The checkout clerk at that particular register is a teenage Muslima who says she is uncomfortable handling alcohol or pork because of her religion, and the store management put up the sign in an effort to accommodate her.

In other news, Greece’s trade deficit dropped by almost 30% in January, but the reduction was almost entirely due to a decrease in domestic demand as a result of the financial crisis, and not because of an increase in exports.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fausta, Fjordman, Freedom Fighter, Insubria, JD, JP, McR, Nick, Steen, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Gee, all the big talk about the Global March to Jerusalem that was supposed to happen yesterday. I wasted time trying to find information on this event before the reality set in: media in Jerusalem were hiding: from their excitable point of view, nothing did happen. No opportunities for footage of mean JOOOS murdering Poorpoor Palis. They really do believe the things they hype so when those photo ops didn’t happen, what’s there to report?

I shouldn’t have needed reminding. When Google News had nothing on Jerusalem by 2:00 pm our time…well, duh, Dymphna.

Jerry Gordon at New English Review had been following the lead-up to the non-event, concerned about how ugly it would become. His post has lots of background:

In the run up to yesterday’s Global March to Jerusalem (GM2J), there were a number of predictions that the aggressive promotion by the event organizers were overblown and the “Mad Marchers” event would be a bust.

Nidra Poller, ex-pat American, talented writer and long time resident in Paris, and Cleveland -based founder of Boycott Watch, Fred Taub, thought that might be the case. Poller was relying on her seasoned and incisive intuition drawn from personal knowledge of what happens in France and Israel. Taub took me though the Gm2J and other social media stats of the several websites and their Twitter account to demonstrate that there wasn’t a groundswell of interest in the event, save for that shown in Iran.

This was reflected in the meager figures for GM2J website traffic and links to other sites at Alexa.com and low levels of following reflected in Tweets activity on Twitter. In his opinion this was evidence of low support for the GM2J event and that the International Boycott, Divestment Sanctions campaign against Israel was possibly running out of steam.

Probably not “running out of steam” in Norway, though, where the government drives the conversation.

But Jerry was right to be concerned. In that post, he shows the various networks who were pushing for this in Muslim countries. Iran spent lots of money, Turkey was willing to ferry people to Lebanon for the event if they could make it from south Asia. As he demonstrates in that post, different groups whose mutual hatred will have them at one another’s throats if they ever manage to get rid of Little Satan were working together to make this happen. But as the large echoing silence from the media indicates, it didn’t.

What is of particular interest in Jerry’s research is the ways in which outsiders can gauge what’s going on by watching the internet chatter. The relative lack of chatter on this event was thus a good indication it was destined to be another FAIL. Indeed, it pretty much looked like the last flotilla (and the alternate flytilla for that matter) — i.e., lots of hats, no cattle.

Several people sent round an email yesterday describing the scene in Israel. After finding out who’d written it, I contacted the author, asking for permission to reprint. His response came, but I didn’t see it until the Baron asked me if I’d decided not to post it…yes, it is easy to lose track of things in the bowels of our webmail…

What makes his report of particular interest is the man’s job. The point of view from someone who provides security for others has gravitas.

At least eleven people were killed today in a series of bomb blasts in southern Thailand.

While Vlad was processing the video that accompanies this story, I asked him what was in the clip. “It’s typical post-bomb footage,” he replied. “Could be anywhere after a Religion-of-Peace meet.”

He’s got a point: the aftermath videos of most Muslim atrocities are depressingly similar. The only major variables are the language on the street signs and the type of foliage in the background.

I can just imagine a special studio library of such footage. When news of the latest incident breaks, the producer yells, “Quick! Fetch me a stock clip from the Muslim Atrocity Archives!”

The available footage would be substantial, so it might have to be subdivided into specialized categories:

1.

Camera panning across a blood-soaked sidewalk

2.

Shots of a huge bomb crater and burning cars

3.

Parents weeping hysterically over their dead children

4.

Quick clips of severed limbs scattered all around

5.

Bodies under sheets arranged in rows

6.

People with bloody faces being carried away

7.

A “moderate” imam on TV saying, “We are all concerned that there might be a backlash against the Muslim community.”

#7, of course, is the one that would be most frequently used.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here’s a news clip from RT about the incident. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for uploading this video:

Below is the accompanying article from RT (Note the stock phrase “restive South”, which is how the mainstream media always describe the Muslim-dominated southern provinces of Thailand, where Islamic terror attacks occur with horrifying regularity):

Friday, March 30, 2012

An Afghan police officer shot nine of his comrades to death while they slept. Some reports say that the victims had been drugged before they were shot.

In other news, German chancellor Angela Merkel seems to have withdrawn her opposition to an €800 billion increase in the Eurozone “firewall”. According to the latest polls, this policy change is opposed by three out of four Germans.

Meanwhile, a brewery in Lithuania has successfully lobbied the government to designate beer as an essential service, so that a strike by brewery workers thereby would become illegal.

Thanks to Anne-Kit, C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, ESW, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, McR, Nick, Srdja Trifkovic, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

As the presidential election campaign heats up in France, so does Nicolas Sarkozy’s interest in making high-profile terror arrests. Nineteen suspected Islamic terrorists were arrested today by special forces in various parts of the country.

As we reported a couple of weeks ago, a Counterjihad demonstration will take place tomorrow in the Danish city of Aarhus. In just a few hours, members of the English Defence League and other European Defence Leagues will join their hosts from the Danish Defence League in downtown Aarhus.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer reports that the Norwegian police will also be in Aarhus tomorrow, tasked with keeping an eye on the “Islamophobes” of the Norwegian Defence League. A Norwegian MSM article about the event has solicited the “expert” opinion of two prominent Norwegian leftists, at least one of whom is well-known to long-time Gates of Vienna readers.

The Observer remarks:

Note that the Norwegian police are sending representatives to Aarhus to spy on those Norwegians who are taking part in the demo. So much for political freedom in Norway!

Notice also the two ‘experts’ that Dagbladet has chosen to interview. Lars Gule (see Wikipedia) is a former would-be terrorist, and Øyvind Strømmen’s background is in the Norwegian radical Left.

(Dagbladet): The Danish Defence League has invited right-wing extremists from all over Europe to join them in a demonstration in Aarhus tomorrow. It is expected that several hundred right-wing extremists will take part in the “anti-Islamic demonstration”.

The leader of the Norwegian Defense League, Ronny Alte, estimates that somewhere between twenty and fifty Norwegian members will be present in Aarhus.

Police assistance from Norway

The head of the organized crime unit in Oslo, Einar Aas, has sent three police officers to Aarhus.

“We follow all the organised groups in Oslo closely, and we have a good dialogue with them. We have decided to send three police officers to Aarhus who have a good knowledge of the various groups and its members. This is just normal police cooperation across the borders and the Danes are benefiting from this,” Aas tells Dagbladet.

The Police commander confirms that the Norwegian police personnel are going to keep an eye on the Norwegian participants and also stay in contact with Danish police authorities. He describes the Norwegian Defence League as a “marginal group”.

“We register that a demonstration is being organized, but we don’t have a specific opinion about it.”

“Immigration hostile stimuli”

Lars Gule, a philosopher and fellow at the University College in Oslo, is the author of the book Traits of Extremism. He believes that the demonstration is “an attempt by right-wing radicals and extreme groups to coordinate their work and strengthen each other.”

Islam-skeptical parties in Europe are often said to resemble Jobbik, the extreme nationalist and anti-Zionist party in Hungary. The following video makes it clear that the comparison is utterly spurious.

Vona Gábor, the leader of the Hungarian anti-Zionist extreme nationalist party Jobbik, maintains that Islam is the last bastion of traditional culture. Therefore he believes its role is essential to ensure the survival of the world, and that Christianity should reconsider its position towards Islam.

Many thanks to Hermes for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

A comment on our first post about George Galloway’s upset victory in Bradford West is worth reproducing here:

It is rather amusing to see Labour lose as the result of Muslims voting instead of hanging on to their easy lifestyle.

The puzzle has always been that those who championed Islam and the immigration of Muslims to our country never appeared to realise that once enough Muslims gathered together in one spot they’d vote for who they really wanted in power — not for the Labour numpties who let them in here.

A thank you vote? I don’t think so. George Galloway is a transitional politician — a step away from the Labour traitors who let Muslims get a foothold to politicians who act openly in support of Islamic causes.

But he’s only a transitional figure — one day he’ll have served his purpose too.

Following on the Leicester Tiger’s take on yesterday’s by-election in Bradford West, Paul Weston examines the larger context of George Galloway’s victory, and what it means for the future of British politics.

George Galloway, Islam and Britain’s Futureby Paul Weston

George Galloway has won the seat of Bradford West, much to the apparent shock of the sixth-form student unionists masquerading as adult Labour politicians.

This must make Mr Andrew Neather feel a tad foolish. His proud boast that by importing the Third World Labour would “rub the noses of the right in diversity” appears to have backfired pretty spectacularly.

But Labour have a misguided right to feel shocked. One of the reasons for transforming Britain into a divisive multi-racial country was to ensure Labour’s rule in perpetuity. In the 2010 general election the Conservatives won only 16% of the ethnic vote, whilst Labour won the support of 72% of Bangladeshis, 78% of Afro-Caribbeans and 87% of Africans.

Labour have long pandered to the Muslim vote, for obvious reasons. Muslims wield far more electoral influence than other groups, because they vote who they are told to vote for by the local imam. Jack Straw, for example, was utterly dependent on the Islamic bloc vote in Blackburn, hence his uniformly anti-English sentiment.

But the sheer vacuous stupidity of Labour politicians and their complete inability to absorb the reality of Islam means the Galloway success is only just the beginning. Ken Livingstone will run for Mayor of London on a pro-Islam ticket. Lutfur Rahman, a Muslim with links to hard-line Islamists, is already mayor of Tower Hamlets.

Contrary to the wishful thinking of Labour’s traitor class, Muslims will not vote for them once they become demographically large enough to vote for one of their own — or even for fanatically grovelling Islamic apologists such as the infidel Galloway. So if the Muslim demographic continues to double every decade — as it has since 1960 — then the future of British politics (and Britain) can only become increasingly Islamic.

Galloway’s election spiel had little to do with Britain or the British; he pandered only to the Muslims, even invoking Pakistan and Kashmir in a letter beginning with “A Salaam o Aleukum”. Some snippets follow:

As reported in last night’s news feed, former MP George Galloway and his Respect party scored an upset victory in yesterday’s by-election in Bradford West. The seat he successfully contested was thought to be safe for Labour, as it had been for almost forty years.

So the votes are in. The pundits have decided. And the narrative is now taking shape.

George Galloway’s win in Bradford West has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, they tell us. Preposterous. Nonsense. Don’t be silly. Move along; nothing to see here. (Please note the prayer bump on the head of the imam kissing Galloway’s hand: here)

The conclusion in Britain from news sources on both the Right, and the Left, is that Bradford West is an upset at the heart of the Labour movement. It represents nothing more than the “Old” traditionalist Labour contingent forming up with a “diverse” Pakistani vote to secure victory for Galloway.

This is stuff and nonsense that has no grounding whatsoever in the facts. Galloway won a 10,000 plus majority by convincing the electorate that he was a better Muslim, or rather a real Muslim, when compared with the favourite, Imran Hussein of Labour, who all previous political logic predicted to be a sure thing.

The reason why I asserted last night over on the Vlad Tepes Blog that Bradford West is Europe’s future is that Galloway’s “Respect” party is nothing more than a political reality that is inevitably going to emerge from country to country in Europe, as the demographics shift.

The party has only ever stood successfully in one other constituency before: Tower Hamlets. In this campaign video for Bradford they are described as the party that “sorted out” Tower Hamlets, and indeed they did: Respect’s control coincided with its transition from minority Islamic borough to Islamist Sharia fiefdom. As regular Gates of Vienna readers will be more than aware.

Why on earth did Galloway come to Bradford, where he had never been before, and win the most resounding turnaround that Westminster parliamentary history has ever seen? And in a constituency that has been a safe Labour seat for 40 years? This video debate between the candidates is illuminating, and it highlights why for example, as Galloway’s letter to Bradford West’s Islamic community made clear the fact that Hussain was Pakistani, or represented the policies of Labour leader Ed Miliband, was utterly irrelevant.

What mattered more to the key voters of Bradford (and didn’t even appear on the radar screens of the “Westminster bubble”) was that Imran Hussein was widely rumoured locally to be a boozer, and thus couldn’t possibly be considered a proper Muslim. While Galloway — teetotaller, two Muslim wives, a political career supporting Muslim causes, and a history of making Islamic declarations of faith — secretly was.

Galloway’s win came because “The Respect Party” is code for The MUSLIM Party. The European precedent has now been set for a thumping win by such a party, and it will be the first of many. Mark my words.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

The flamboyant former MP George Galloway will be returning to Parliament in Westminster after his stunning victory in the West Bradford by-election. Mr. Galloway scored his upset by being more Islamic than his Labour opponent, an ethnic Pakistani who was thought to be holding a safe seat.

In other news, an elderly man survived ten days stranded in a remote Nevada desert location by drinking melted snow and ditch water. After the first few days of their ordeal, his friend left their stuck vehicle to get help, and was later found dead a mile and a half away.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Religious Affairs in Indonesia has declared that the miniskirt is “pornographic” and must be banned.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JP, Nick, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

This post isn’t officially designated as cultural enrichment news, based as it is on an article from the Swedish MSM. The national media in Sweden are always fastidious about anything that might hint at the non-Swedish ethnicity of violent criminals. However, as the translator notes, the attack occurred in “Gothenburg’s multicultural ghetto Kortedala”.

Many thanks to our Swedish correspondent Freedom Fighter for the translation from Expressen:

Gang nearly kills 61-year-old, who is in a coma — six arrested

The 61-year-old man was nearly beaten to death by a gang of youths. The possible motive may have been that he rebuked the boys after they teased his dog.

Seven boys were brought in for questioning on Wednesday. Six of them have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

It was last Sunday that the 61-year-old man walked to Kortedala square with his dog to shop. The man believed that the gang may have irritated his dog when he was inside the store. When he asked what they had done, seven or eight people attacked him and showered him with punches and kicks.

On Wednesday the man was still being cared for in hospital with life-threatening injuries.

“He is in a coma and has very, very severe brain damage,” says Bertil Claesson, head of the police team from the Northeast.

It is currently unclear whether the man will survive.

Seven for questioning

Two young men had previously been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the brutal assault but were later released. On Wednesday, however, seven other boys were picked up for questioning. All are in their early teenage years, 15-16 year olds. …

Six of them were arrested later.

What is the criminal charge?

“Attempted murder,” said prosecutor Carl-Henrik Andersson after three of the boys had been arrested.

How do they feel about the accusations?

“That I will not comment on, but they do not understand it exactly.”

Want more tips

Police believe they have a good picture of what happened, but plead for more tips.

“We are always grateful for more eyewitness accounts. If anyone has observed anything, we will be very happy if people contact us,” says Bertil Claesson.

Ed West is a British columnist who writes regularly for The Telegraph. He is no progressive, and has always seemed sympathetic to our — i.e. the “Islamophobic” — viewpoint.

Thus it came as a surprise to many readers last week when Mr. West wrote a column admonishing people not to blame Islam for the murders in Toulouse. Despite the adverse reactions to his position — including an acerbic riposte from Mark Steyn — the columnist has not backed down from his position to any meaningful extent. He elaborated on the same theme yesterday in a column entitled “How Islam Became a Scapegoat for the Problems of Immigration”.

Readers are advised to read the whole thing to get the gist of Mr. West’s logic. As is often the case, commenters at the The Telegraph are more adept at deconstructing his arguments than any of the professional writers, Mark Steyn included.

In response to Mr. West’s inclusion of a quote from Christopher Caldwell (“Islam is a magnificent religion that has also been, at times over the centuries, a glorious and generous culture”), one commenter made these excellent remarks:

trinitythegreen (Yesterday 03:52 PM)

There is so much in your blog I would like to take issue with, but I don’t have the time or the space. So let’s just take that Caldwell quote.

It is obligatory to say or quote some praise in any article about Islam and that’s what that quote is here for. It’s like saying ‘OK. Islam has its faults but it is a ‘magnificent religion... etc etc.’

It isn’t. Just because it’s huge it isn’t great. It is violent, intolerant, implacable and unforgiving and it is hell bent on taking over the world. Just because not all Muslims wear suicide vests doesn’t make them ‘moderate’ because there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim.

There are active Muslims and there are acquiescent Muslims but there are no moderate ones because the Koran is a handbook for applied savagery. And don’t give me the nonsense about how the Bible is just as bloodthirsty as the Koran because the Bible is descriptive and the Koran is prescriptive. The Koran commands that the unbelievers be slain ‘where you find them’, that a child’s education entails teaching them to believe Jews are descended from pigs and Monkeys, and all the good stuff in the Koran has been abrogated by the bad. And none of that is ‘out of context’ because the Koran IS the context.

We’re all used to culturally enriched horror stories from Sweden, but this one is more horrific than usual. Kitman has gone through the latest material and produced a translated summary. He includes this introduction:

Mariannelund is famous as the hometown of the beloved author of children’s books Astrid Lindgren. It prides itself on its idyllic scenery, known throughout the world from the movies about Emil from Lönneberga. The area also features the largest so-called “Runkesten” in the world — a huge stone which happens to be positioned in such a way that it can be moved back and forth by the simple touch of a hand.

However, the construction of an asylum centre has recently made Mariannelund home to many strangers from backward countries. Suddenly the quiet little town is making much more sinister headlines: robberies, rapes, and attempted murders have been occurring lately in Mariannelund, all somehow related to the population replacement policy of the current regime.

The victim in the case below knew one of the perpetrators and “thought she was going to a party in Vimmerby”. Instead the trip went to the immigration facilities, and here her nightmare began.

The English Defence League is looking for volunteers to help out with their website. The organization has grown so quickly that staffing is a recurring problem, especially since all positions must be filled by unpaid volunteers.

You don’t have to live in Britain — or even be British — to be of assistance.

Useful skills include:

Writing clear prose

The ability to edit text

A knack for making images and videos

Digging out useful information from the nooks and crannies of the internet

The EDL Support Group currently has vacancies in our Editorial/Research teams and also our Visual team.

This is your chance to make a unique contribution to our movement, and to help ensure that our message reaches as many people as possible.

We are always looking to engage with all kinds of people, so it really doesn’t matter who you are — any and every background is welcome. We need different perspectives to help ensure that we develop as many possible new ideas, and that we are in a position to best represent the views of our supporters.

You don’t need any specific experience, and because we appreciate that every one of our team members is a volunteer, we don’t demand any particular level of commitment — just whatever you can do!

All we ask is that you have regular access to the internet and a willingness to work as a team.

Visit the EDL Facebook post for more details about what is involved in editorial and research work, and for contact details.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

An appeals court in Switzerland has ruled against a Muslim husband and wife who sought to keep their daughters out of mixed-sex swimming classes. The court stated that requiring the girls to attend mixed swimming was not a significant infringement of religious freedom. It upheld the lower court’s 1,400-franc fine against the couple.

In other news, a woman in Afghanistan was murdered by her mother-in-law, with the possible collusion of her husband, for giving birth to a third daughter without having produced a son.

Thanks to C. Cantoni, Erick Stakelbeck, Fjordman, heroyalwhyness, Insubria, JD, JP, LAW Wells, Nick, Steen, TV, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Several years ago Andrew Bostom published a comprehensive survey of antisemitism as expressed in the Qur’an. The article is unfortunately no longer available online, so the author has kindly sent us the full text.

This is the third of four installments. Previously: Part 1 and Part 2.

Antisemitism in the Qur’an: Motifs and Historical Manifestations

Part 3

by Andrew G. Bostom

The Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258 under Hulagu Khan (d. 1265) destroyed Muslim suzerainty and the domination of Islam as a state religion, rendering it “…a religion among all others”. [120] Mongol rule thus eliminated the system of dhimmitude, and in contrast to Islamic chauvinism, writes Walter Fischel, [121]

…the principle of tolerance for all faiths, maintained by the Il Khans [Mongol rulers], (depriving) the [Islamic] concept of the “Protected People”, the ahl adh-Dhimma [dhimmi system]…of its former importance; with it fell the extremely varied professional restrictions into which it had expanded, …primarily those regarding the admission of Jews and Christians to government posts.

The 13th century Christian chronicler Bar Hebraeus recorded this telling observation: [122]

With the Mongols there is neither slave nor free man, neither believer nor pagan, neither Christian nor Jew; but they regard all men as belonging to one and the same stock.

And the Iraqi Ghazi b. al-Wasiti (fl. 1292), author of a contemporary Muslim treatise on the dhimmis, noted: [123]

A firman of the Il Khan [Hulagu] had appeared to the effect that everyone should have the right to profane his faith openly and his religious connection; and that the members of one religious body should not oppose those of another

Fischel concludes: [124]

For Christians and Jews, the two groups chiefly affected by the ahl adh-Dhimma policy, current until then, this change in constitutional and religious principles implied a considerable amelioration of their position; whereas for the Muslims it meant they had sunk to a depth hitherto unknown in their history.

The brief rise and calamitous fall of Sa‘d ad-Daula — which mirrored the experience of his Jewish co-religionists — took place during this Mongol epoch. Sa‘d ad-Daula was a Jewish physician, who successfully reformed the Mongol revenue and taxation system for Iraq. In recognition of these services, he was appointed by the Mongol emperor Arghun (who reigned from 1284-1291) to the position of administrative Vizier (in 1289) over Arghun’s Empire. According to Bar Hebraeus, [125]

The king of kings [Arghun] ordered that Sa’d ad-Daula, the Jew, hitherto the Governor of Baghdad, should be appointed Chief of the administrative officials throughout all provinces of the Empire.

Despite being a successful and responsible administrator (which even the Muslim sources confirm [126]), the appointment of a Jew as the Vizier of a heathen ruler over a predominantly Muslim region, aroused the wrath, predictably, of the Muslim masses. This reaction was expressed through and exacerbated by “…all kinds of [Muslim] diatribes, satirical poems, and libels”. [127] Ibn al-Fuwati (d. 1323), a contemporary Muslim historian from Baghdad, recorded this particularly revealing example which emphasized traditional anti-Jewish motifs from the Qur’an: [128]

In the year 689/1291 a document was prepared which contained libels against Sa’d ad-Daula, together with verses from the Qur’an and the history of the prophets, that stated the Jews to be a people whom Allah hath debased…

Another contemporary Muslim source, the chronicler and poet Wassaf, [129] according to Fischel, “…empties the vials of hatred on the Jew Sa‘d ad-Daula and brings the most implausible accusations against him”. [130] These accusations included the claims that Sa‘d had advised Arghun to cut down trees in Baghdad (dating from the days of the conquered Muslim Abbasid dynasty), and build a fleet to attack Mecca and convert the cuboidal Ka‘ba (i.e., the holiest place and structure in Islam) to a heathen temple. [131] Wassaf’s account also quotes satirical verses to demonstrate the extent of public dissatisfaction with what he terms “Jewish Domination”, adding to the existing line, “Turn Jews, for heaven itself hath turned a Jew”, his own, [132]

Yet wait and ye shall hear their torments cry And see them fall and perish presently

When Arghun took ill, influential Mongol dukes inimical to Sa‘d ad-Daula for purely political reasons, shifted the “blame” for Arghun’s terminal illness to the Jewish physician-Vizier. Sa‘d and his supporters were arrested and a large number of them executed (1291). [133] Sa‘d ad-Daula’s murder precipitated a broad attack on Jewry throughout the Il-Khan Empire, beginning in the Baghdad Jewish ghetto, where according to the Bar Hebraeus and Wassaf, despite Jewish resistance,

…when the report of the murder of the Jew was heard, the Arabs armed themselves and went to the quarter of the Jews, because the Jews were all living together in quarter [134]…in Baghdad more than a hundred of the noble and wealthy Jews were slain, and their property plundered [135]

Wassaf and Ibn al-Fuwati further reveal that such attacks spread well beyond Baghdad: [136]

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer, who translated the piece below, described it this way:

Have a look at this translated article, and in particular the bolded text. The professor interviewed here actually believes that it should be legal in Norway to encourage someone to kill Jews, just not a particular Jew.

In other words:

Good:

“Let’s kill all the sheenies!”

Bad:

“Let’s kill Moishe!”

It’s also important to remember that Fjordman, whose writings call for an end to mass immigration and the preservation of traditional Norwegian culture, is considered by polite society to be the second most evil person in Norway.

Norwegian sociologist, Kristian Skagen Ekeli believes that extreme speech and incitement to commit terrorism are natural aspects of a democracy.

Ekeli is a researcher at the University of Stavanger (UiS). He believes that incitement to commit terrorism should be allowed in a stable democracy like Norway. Such statements should only be banned if there is an imminent threat of terrorism, he tells the campus newspaper, Univers.

Mullah Krekar was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday for having threatened to kill Norwegian citizens, among them former Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik. Some of the threats were made last weekend. Ekeli fails to see the problem with this in a democracy such as Norway.

“A ban won’t prevent extreme ideas, nor will it stop speech that incites to terrorism. A ban will only drive such ideas underground, where they remain unchallenged,” he says.

Freedom of speech should be given precedent, Ekeli believes, although he acknowledges that calls to commit criminal acts are likely to increase the odds of someone breaking the law,

Over the past few weeks new cases involving Muslim “grooming and pimping” gangs have appeared almost daily in the British media. In his latest essay, Paul Weston takes a hard look at what is happening, and what it portends for “community cohesion” in Britain.

Muslim Paedophiles, Feminists and Future Civil WarBy Paul Weston

The British police are slightly less of a disgrace than they were a couple of years ago. In the not-so-distant past there was little reporting of native British girls being drugged, groomed, raped and murdered by gangs of Muslim males in our towns and cities.

This wall of silence was erected in the interests of “community cohesion,” a modern verbal concept invented by our liberal elites who think it is better that the indigenous population remain unaware of the horrifying abuse carried out by British Muslims. This is understandable, because to be aware might make even the most fluffy-headed of liberals question the benefits of mass Muslim migration into the liberal democracy that was once Great Britain.

That is one way of explaining their historical silence, I suppose. The fact that Mohammed’s marriage to six-year-old Aisha was consummated when she was only nine might also play a part in the whole sordid affair, along with the fact that Muslim males consider Muslim females to be second class-citizens — not to mention infidel females.

But now that the liberal silence has been broken, we appear to suffering from an absolute epidemic of Muslim paedophilia and abuse. Dewsbury, Leeds, Blackburn, Blackpool, Derby, Rochdale, Birmingham etc. etc. all seem to have their very own Islamic gang-rape-of-under-age-children-enclaves, with the recent additions of Oxford and Glasgow. The ongoing benefits of multiculturalism we are constantly being told to celebrate are certainly well-represented geographically, it must be said.

If this were a situation where gangs of white males were raping young Muslim girls it would have been headline news a long time ago, but sadly the native British are now very much second-class citizens within their own homeland. In these perverse multicultural times we live in, all cultures are equal except ours.

If the BBC and Germaine Greer are not too busy over the next few days, perhaps they might like to comment on this matter. As the eternal espousers of feminism, it would appear only right for them to do so. Whilst they are at it, perhaps they might also like to weigh in on the 17,000 cases of Muslim “Honour” violence reported by the Independent, along with a recent report stating one in five Muslims thinks it permissible to inflict physical violence on women who dishonour their families. (It is one of those odd facets of multiculturalism that such dishonour could be incurred by dating a native Brit.)

But even though the British police have finally plucked up sufficient bravery to overcome the sheer awfulness of being called nasty playground names, and are now belatedly actually doing something to protect our children from Muslim rapists and paedophiles, it might be some time before British feminists and the BBC also garner such courage.

Left-wing ideology still thinks of Muslims as a minority to be protected in the face of relentless oppression by the native British. But quite how a lone thirteen year-old girl could oppress a gang of adult bearded males after being drugged, or rendered comatose via vodka, is one of those not altogether incidental questions the BBC feminists and Ms Greer should really be asking themselves.

And it is important that they do. We are already at the early stages of a tribal/religious civil war in Britain, courtesy of the immigration and appeasement policies of ALL the political traitor class. The Muslim rape of our children now appears to be a driving force in what over the coming years can only make civil war inevitable.

If you think this is an overreaction, please read the following paragraphs, taken from a recent Independentarticle about white riots in Rochdale:

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Two British soldiers guarding a base in Afghanistan were shot and killed by one of their Afghan “allies”. The gunman is said to be a soldier in the Afghan National Army.

In other news, the Nigerian government is warning of a possible famine in the northeastern region of the country where the Islamic terror group Boko Haram is active. The attacks by the jihadists are interfering with local farmers and may significantly reduce the harvest.

Meanwhile, an elderly Jewish man was beaten to death with a hammer by an unknown assailant in the Moroccan city of Fez.

Thanks to Andy Bostom, Anne-Kit, C. Cantoni, CSP, Insubria, JD, JP, McR, The Observer, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

A breaking news story from Spain concerns today’s arrest of a suspected Al Qaeda recruiter known as “The Librarian”.

Many thanks to Hermes for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling of this news clip. Note: there were problems with the audio in the original video from the news website, and Vlad was unable to repair the sound completely:

Below is the accompanying article from Intereconomía, also translated by Hermes:

Known among the jihadists as ‘The Librarian’

The Al-Qaeda member arrested in Valencia was tasked to recruit terrorists like the one in Toulouse

Jorge Fernandez Diaz says terrorists like Mohamed Merah were indoctrinated and recruited via Internet forums such as that run by the detainee.

The interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz highlighted the arrest of a suspected member of the Al Qaeda terrorist network, known in jihadist circles as ‘The Librarian’, and said that terrorists such as Mohamed Merah, the murderer of Toulouse, were recruited and indoctrinated through Internet forums such as that run by the detainee in Valencia.

“He was known within the organization as ‘The Librarian of Al Qaeda’ and was in charge of one of the most important jihadist forums in the world, which was dedicated to the dissemination of terrorist activities, terrorist recruitment and indoctrination. To understand it properly, the training of people like Mohamed Merah, the murderer of Toulouse, was made possible through forums like this” said the minister, but has made clear that “this operation has nothing to do with the other in Toulouse”

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sent several tips and translations on the Jumpin’ Jihad Jailbird. He includes this note:

Apparently Mullah Krekar attacked a reporter later that day (he wasn’t taken into custody afterwards, he will be asked to show up at a jail sometime in the future) when a reporter from TV2 in Norway wanted a comment on the sentence.

Well, I suppose this will mean that more non-Western immigrants among the inmates will be radicalised by the Mad Mullah. Or maybe he will serve his sentence on the idyllic island of Bastoy?

The sentence will probably be appealed so, the circus is likely to go on for a long time.

Mullah Krekar, the Iraqi-born cleric and founder of the radical Ansar al-Islam Islamist group, has been jailed for five years in Norway for making death threats against officials and others.

Mullah Krekar, the Kurdish cleric and founder of radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, has been sentenced to five years in prison in Norway for issuing death threats against officials and others.

An Oslo district court found the 55-year-old guilty on Monday of threatening the life of Erna Solberg, a former government minister who signed an order expelling Krekar in 2003 because he was considered a threat to national security, the Agence France Presse reported.

Krekar, who came to Norway as a refugee from Iraq with his family in 1991, and whose real name is Najmeddine Faraj Ahmad, was also found guilty of threatening three other Kurds living in Norway who had burned pages of the Qu’ran or insulted it in other ways.

From his home in Oslo, Krekar founded Ansar al-Islam, which the US and UN regard as a terrorist organization and Washington blames for attacks on coalition forces in Iraq.

The UN added Krekar to a list of people believed to have links with Al Qaeda in 2006. The cleric remains in Norway despite the deportation order against him due to Iraq’s unstable security situation, the BBC reports.

Krekar, who claims to have stepped down as leader of Ansar al-Islam in 2002 and denies any ties to Al Qaeda, said in court that he would appeal Monday’s ruling, according to the Associated Press.

Mr. Hannan applauds the decision Iceland made to stay out of the EU. His reasoning is clear - and perhaps somewhat regretful regarding his own country's steamrollering of its citizens into that den of thieves?

Maybe it's the Irish/Viking gene pool in Iceland that accounts for their intelligent move. Whatever.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hannan seems to have been taking "Italian Hand Gestures 101". In the advanced class, they learn how to make them less obvious, perhaps?

Yeah, I'm sniping and unfair; it's a trenchant speech. But really, I watched it twice just to observe his hands - and also to hear him say again, though by indirection, that membership in the EU turns a country's parliament into a "local chamber".

Good on you, sir. Despite being in the EU's chamberpot yourself, you seem to have kept your good English jaundice...

Monday, March 26, 2012

Dubai’s police chief warns that the Muslim Brotherhood has plans to overthrow the emirs and kings of the Gulf region and establish full Islamic rule. Their goal is to be achieved gradually, with the current leaders turned into figureheads before eventually being deposed.

In other news, French president Nicolas Sarkozy says that Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi is not welcome in France.

Thanks to Anne-Kit, Insubria, JP, Nick, RR, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

A reader and commenter from upstate New York often sends us things he’s written to others. He has a mailing list – or perhaps several, since he deals with a number of topics. For example, I don’t read his math emails; they would be wasted on me but the Baron gets them. To each his own...

However this epistle came in the other day and I enjoyed it so much I asked his permission to share with our readers. [It would've been up earlier had we not experienced our second DSL disconnect. Looks like we're going to have to resurrect our old dial-up workaround.]

To say that MS has a deadpan sense of humor is putting it mildly.

Enjoy, including the joke at the end…

Dear Western New York Muslims,

Here is something that will fit right in with your mission statement “To share with the American Public about the diverse and religious traditions and customs of Muslims so as to overcome stereotypes and prejudices within the Western New York Region and beyond.”

One stereotype to overcome is the idea that Muslims have no sense of humor. This prejudice that sees Muslims as blowhard killjoys probably stems from thirty years ago, when the Grand Mullah of Iran (known as the Ayatollah Khomeini; ever heard of him?) said “Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.”

“No humor in Islam”, huh? Well, fun-loving Muslims are doing their best to prove this Shiite sourpuss wrong.

This is a “Dear Abby” website maintained by Muslims (probably Sunni) with a very “dry” sense of humor. Most non-Muslims who stumble upon this website, lacking the background to appreciate the subtle wit, will think it is for real, and will merely puzzle over it. But we Muslims who are in the know will appreciate its inside-joke clerical mimicry, with references that will go over the head of those who do not know the relevant hadiths...

Actually, some Islam-savvy non-Muslims really do appreciate the very subtle, dry humor of Islam-QA.com . See Irrational Islam.

Have fun exploring.

— MS

P.S. Oh, speaking of Islamic humor, here’s a riddle (from the set-up, you can probably guess what the punch-line is going to be):

“What did the Hawaiian jihadi say when he pressed the button on his suicide vest?”

Several years ago Andrew Bostom published a comprehensive survey of antisemitism as expressed in the Qur’an. The article is unfortunately no longer available online, so the author has kindly sent us the full text.

The Persistent Historical Application of the Anti-Jewish Motifs in the Qur’an

Earlier, in relation to Qur’an 5:82, a few brief examples were provided [85] illustrating the historical continuity (from 9th century Baghdad/Iraq, to19th century Egypt) of the hateful attitudes towards Jews this specific verse (5:82) engendered among the Muslim masses, as chronicled by contemporary observers, both Muslim and non-Muslim. Having now presented a full spectrum of the major anti-Jewish motifs in the Qur’an, additional illustrations demonstrating their persistent influence on Muslim attitudes (and resultant behaviors) towards Jews, can be provided. Four themes will be considered: (I) the Jews being associated with Satan and consigned to Hell (Qur’an 4:60, 4:55, 58:14—19, and 98:6); (II) the imposition of the Qur’anic poll-tax (jizya; Qur’an 9:29) on Jews, specifically, and (III) the related enforcement of the Qur’anic (2:61) “curse” upon the Jews for killing the Prophets, and other transgressions against Allah’s will, meriting their permanent humiliation and abasement; and, last in connection to this curse, (IV) the Jews’ transformation into apes/swine, as punishment (Qur’an 2:65, 5:60, and 7:166).

Formal decrees (or modern pronouncements) and opinions from Muslim rulers, jurisconsults, and theologians—past and present—have repeatedly associated non-Muslim dhimmis in general, or Jews specifically, with Satan, and the torments of being consigned deservedly to Hell. The Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil in an anti-dhimmi decree dated 850, according to Tabari's account, [86] “…commanded that wooden images of devils [87] be nailed to the doors of their homes to distinguish them from the homes of Muslims.” Ibn Abdun, a Muslim jurist from Seville, Spain invoked Qur'an 58:19 in a section of his treatise (dated 1100) on dhimmi servitudes which discussed the appropriate dress of dhimmis, and how Muslims should “greet” them: [88]

You must not allow any…Jew or Christian to wear the attire of great men, doctors of law, or the wealthy. On the contrary, they must be objects of contempt and disgust; they are not entitled to a greeting of peace , [“Peace upon you!” (as-salam alaykum!)]. In effect [quoting 58:19] “Satan has gained the mastery over them, and caused them to forget God's Remembrance. Those are Satan's party; why, Satan's party, surely, they are the losers!” They must wear a distinctive, ignominious sign.

A September, 2002 review of Friday sermons from Saudi Arabian mosques [89] indicates that these motifs remain vibrant in popular modern Islamic religious teaching. At a mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Adnan Ahmed Siyami, stated,

[Islam] believes that only Islam and the “Camp of Kufur [unbelief]” exist, and that there is no way to reach Paradise and to be delivered from Hell except by walking in the path of our Prophet Muhammad and joining Islam. Any other way leads to Hell.

Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid, another contemporary Saudi cleric, referred to the Jews, explicitly in his related discussion during a sermon delivered at a mosque in Al-Damam:

The Jews are the helpers of Satan. The Jews are the cause of the misery of the human race, together with the infidels and the other polytheists. Satan leads them to Hell and to a miserable fate.

The common expressions and practices of ordinary Muslims demonstrate how such associations of the Jews with Satan and Hell have long been imbibed by the masses. Solomon b. Jeroham, the authoritative Karaite Jewish exegete who lived in Jerusalem during the mid-10th century, [90] confirmed that the hateful doctrine regarding salutation (and humiliation), illustrated (above) by Ibn Abdun’s treatise, [91] was actually practiced by Muslims in their encounters with Jews. Solomon included the following observation in his 955/56 commentary on the Book of Lamentations: [92]

What can you say about people [Muslims] who curse you when you greet them, and when you do not greet them humiliate you and offend you?

Sir John Drummond-Hay (1816-1893), was a British diplomat and fluent linguist, with an extensive knowledge about Morocco, having lived with his father (Consul-General Edward Drummond-Hay) in Tangier from the age of 16, and served as a trusted personal adviser to three generations of Moroccan Sultans. Writing in 1844, Sir John noted the belief among Muslims of the North African Maghreb (especially Morocco) that, [93]

…if a Muhammadan walks on a Jewish grave he gives relief to the infidel in it, who is in torture, and that for this reason he should keep away from the grave.

Indeed the notion that Jews are condemned, rightfully, to such eternal torment after death is made clear by Muhammad, as recorded in the canonical hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim:

Narrated Aisha: Once Allah's Apostle passed by the (grave of) a Jewess, whose relatives were weeping over her. He said, “They are weeping over her and she is being tortured in her grave” [94]

Narrated Abi Ayub: Once the Prophet went out after Sunset and heard a dreadful voice, and said, “The Jews are being punished in their graves” [95]

Tudor Parfitt's 1996 analysis of the 20th century exodus of Yemen's Jews, [96] leading to the liquidation of their ancient community, observed that Jews figured prominently in Yemeni proverbs and expressions, including this common reference to Hellfire:

It used to be the case after saying "It's hot today" to comment "Ah! A Jew must have perished"—an allusion to the Jew burning in Hell.

The jizya collection ritual, consistent with Qur’an 9:29, fulfills the prescribed debasement of Jews and other dhimmis. Al-Suyuti (d. 1505), author (along with his mentor) [97] of a seminal Qur’anic commentary (Tafsir al-Jalalayn), made these recommendations regarding jizya collection:

…[jizya is part of] land and slaves...is incumbent upon the People of the Book...on people who allow wine [Jews and Christians] and pig-meat [Christians]...[Saaghiruuna means] submissively...[it means] by coercion...[`an yadin means] directly, not trusting the trickery of an intermediary...by force...without resistance...in an unpraiseworthy manner...while you stand and [the dhimmi] sits with the whip in front of you [you take] the money while he has dirt on his head.

As The Observer reported last night, Norwegian media and politicians seem obsessed with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, to the point where it has almost become a domestic political issue in Norway. Prominent members of the ruling Labour Party are strong supporters of Hamas.

In an article published a couple of weeks ago in Israel National News, the Norwegian author Hanne Nabintu Herland discussed the pervasive anti-Israel stance of her country’s government. According to her, the condemnation of Israel often grades into full-blown anti-Semitism:

“The current Labor/radical left Norwegian government is promoting an extreme one-sided and negative stance toward Israel. It is responsible for creating a politically-correct hatred of Israel among many people in the country. This has made Norway, in my view, the most anti-Semitic country in the West. In Norwegian history, there has never been such an anti-Israeli attitude.”

Hanne Nabintu Herland is a Norwegian academic and a historian of religion. She has authored several successful books. The latest one, Respect, published in February 2012, received a lot of publicity and tops the country’s best seller list.

Yet, there has been complete public silence regarding the sharp criticism she poses in the book against the current leftist government for its biased view on Israel.

Herland says, “Control on public opinion is so strong in Norway that it is questionable whether it can be considered a free democratic state. The Labor Party has widely used the terror attack by Anders Breivik against it on 22 July 2011 to further discriminate against any opposition and shut down public debate.”

She adds: “The Norwegian government indirectly accepts the Hamas agenda where its main goals include ethnic cleansing, terror, and genocide against the Jews. Labor Party Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre regularly defends Hamas in newspapers abroad. In February 2011, he did this in the International Herald Tribune, for instance.

“Last year Støre was caught lying on a live program on Norwegian TV2. There he denied that he held continuous talks with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. Yet Støre had to admit this when the reporter told him that Meshaal had mentioned these conversations. What initially may have been an act of naiveté is by now suspect of deliberate malice. In the long term, Støre is tarnishing Norway’s international reputation by acting as a Hamas defender.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Due to last night’s DSL crash, tonight’s news feed is a double-dose. Some of the items that were “breaking” news last night — such as Dick Cheney’s heart transplant — are not-so-breaking now. But here they are, anyway.

A report commissioned by the Australian government warns that celebrating the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign could be divisive and cause tensions in today’s multicultural Australia.

In other news, a group of bioethicists from both sides of the Atlantic has proposed that humans be genetically modified to induce them to act in ways that will help avert climate change. Since no other method has proven effective, the professors have made their “modest proposal” as a last-ditch effort to save humanity from disaster.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

They lured two thirteen-year-old girls into an apartment, and raped them there. Again and again the two children were forced by the testosterone-driven young Muslims to perform oral sex. On Monday, the Paderborn regional court reached a verdict. The two main perpetrators — although they had previously appeared in court on sexual charges — received probation. The two secondary culprits got 80 hours and 200 hours of social service respectively.

The Neue Westfälische newspaper reports:

Falk C.( all names are changed*) is a handsome 16-year-old to whom girls are romantically drawn. The Paderborn resident used this trait shamelessly and shockingly in August of last year. With three 17-, 18-, and 20-year=old friends, he abused two 13-year-old girls. On Monday, Falk C. and his accomplices had to answer before the regional court in Paderborn for child molestation.

In August, the 16-year-old flirted with the two teenagers. They apparently could not resist his charming advances and went with him to the home of Adil E. There were numerous instances of oral sex in which ultimately Shemsi D (17) and Alfred E. (20) also took part. When the parents of the girls learned of these events, they immediately reported it to the police.

The following article from VG.no concerns the treatment of Israeli issues in the Norwegian media. The original piece was quite long, so our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has sent a partial translation:

Israel is made into scapegoats by the Norwegian media

(VG Nett) The Israeli-Palestinian conflict receives more media attention in Norway than all other conflicts, even those that are far bloodier. The organization MIFF (With Israel for Peace) believes that this creates a skewed picture of the situation and the warring factions involved.

MIFF [a non-religious Israeli advocacy organization] has gone through all the articles published by the Norwegian news agency NTB between 2008 and 2011 dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and compared them with articles about Egypt, Syria and Sri Lanka during the same period.

The figures show that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict received a lot more coverage even though the civil war in Sri Lanka and Syria claimed far more lives.

“The mother of all conflicts”

“This creates a disproportionate picture in which Norwegians are made to believe that the situation in the Middle East is worse than everywhere else. Israel is made into a scapegoat and the Middle East conflict is viewed as the mother of all conflicts,” says Conrad Myrland, the leader of MIFF.

Approximately 2,000 people were killed between 2008-2011 in hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians. In comparison, 8,000 people were killed in Syria since March last year, according to figures released by the UN. The death toll in Sri Lanka is uncertain, but UN envoy, Gordon Weiss estimates that approximately 40,000 Tamils were slaughtered in 2009.

In January 2009, while wars were raging in both Gaza and Sri Lanka, Israel was mentioned 566 times in NTB news reports, while Syria and Sri Lanka were mentioned only 52 times.

“As a result of this disproportionate reporting an impression was created that the war in Gaza was much worse than the war in Sri Lanka. The actual death toll shows quite the opposite,” Myrland says.

“What about Congo and Sudan?”

Myrland emphasizes that MIFF’s research is only quantitative and that it doesn’t deal with the content of the NTB reports, which are distributed to most Norwegian media outlets, including VG.

I must admit that I’m not on Facebook. I don’t have time for any additional routine maintenance chores, and I’ve heard that Facebook is a real time-sucker. So I let it be.

Then someone told me that FB is a nest of spyware and privacy-invasion, and that confirmed my decision to stay out of it.

A writer at the German site Junge Freiheit contributes the following piece about the insidious allure of Facebook in his country. Many thanks to JLH for the translation:

They Only Want the Best for Us

by Dieter Stein

Do you have a profile on Facebook? No? Don’t worry, you are by no means in a minority in Germany and you are saving a lot of time. Over twenty million Germans have joined this “social network” and keep up contact there with “friends,” or their virtual equivalent. Facebook is a toy intended to motivate the user to voluntarily reveal as much as possible about him/herself.

It is seductive on trips to post photos on Facebook and wait to see which “friends” press the “I-like-it” button or comment on the picture. The incautious person has turned on the automatic locater, so a profile of movements is added. Younger students especially are tempted by a certain group dynamic to enter increasingly absurd things on Facebook: party pictures, information about the current partner, and more.

Insidious Process of Identity Exposure

What are the consequences? Employers automatically research Google and Facebook to see what information the applicant has left there. This could lead to the applicant’s disqualification, because confidentiality and a serious impression are decisive.

The following article concerns Geir Lippestad, the defense attorney for Anders Behring Breivik.

Mr. Lippestad is attempting to manipulate the Norwegian media by appealing to them not to, well, manipulate the coverage of his client and thereby try the case in the press.

For the past eight months Mr. Lippestad has done his best to try his client in the press — on terms favorable to Mr. Breivik, of course. To an outsider, this latest appeal seems a shameless stunt on the part of the wily trial lawyer. But maybe it looks different to the Norwegian public.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer includes an introductory note to the translated article:

The article is about Anders Behring Breivik and the Norwegian media’s role in influencing the courts in Norway, particularly on the issue of Breivik’s sanity. In another newspaper article Lippestad claims that Breivik is altering his statements based upon the information presented in the newspapers.

If the Norwegian courts are that easily influenced by the media, how easy is it for the authorities to influence the courts, both directly and indirectly? This reeks of politically controlled courts.

One of the problems with Norway is that all the important positions are filled by individuals who have the ‘correct’ political opinions and are willing to follow the ‘directions’ set forth by the authorities, and not by individuals who have the best qualifications and who would carry out their responsibilities in a far superior manner.

The same syndrome was reflected in the poor police response in the hours after the 22/7 attacks.

Defence attorney Geir Lippestad implores the media not to discuss the conclusions in a new medical report.

By Glenn Slydal Johansen

Six days before the July 22 trial against accused terrorist Anders Behring Breivik is scheduled to start, a new medical report has been released. This report will provide answers relating to the mental health of the defendant and whether or not he can be given a prison sentence.

The first medical report, which concluded that Breivik was criminally insane, was released just before Christmas last year. This report became the target of intense media scrutiny and led to demands for a new report. This request was finally accepted on January 13, when the court appointed new medical experts and ordered a second medical assessment. The court justified its decision with the intense criticism that the first report received in the media.

“Should wait”

Defence attorney Geir Lippestad believes that it’s the responsibility of the court to determine the information presented in the new report, and not the media.

Anestos Canelides’ latest essay concerns American apologies for Koran-burnings and other offenses against the Religion of Peace, and the blatant double standard that is habitually applied to Islam concerning issues of “intolerance”.

Why do we tolerate their intolerance?by Anestos Canelides

Churches burned:

To see Barack Hussein Obama, the leader of the free world, apologize for the burning of the Qur’ans greatly weakens our position as the leader of the free world.

For the last few weeks I have become extremely irritated at the groveling and bowing down by our leaders to the Islamists for the accidental burning of the Qur’ans. Now they want to prosecute the so-called perpetrators who allowed their holy book to be burned. The sheer hypocrisy of this whole incident is pathetic. It should instead be the Muslims who are sorry for centuries of jihad against unbelievers. They are the ones who should seek our forgiveness for burning churches in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria and other parts of the world.

They also owe an apology for the centuries of persecution of the Zoroastrians of Persia or the destruction of Buddhist temples and shrines today in Thailand.

How many Christians have they murdered in the process of purifying Muslims lands from the cultural influence and presence of Christianity?

It does not take much of an Internet search to find the answer. Groups like CAIR or the Organization of Islamic Cooperation cry foul about Islamophobia or acts of prejudice and violence towards Muslims, but they fail to acknowledge Muslim violence towards any unbelievers in the world.

Should we, as a nation, be outraged by the burning of churches by Muslims around the world? Shouldn’t they apologize to our leaders for their wrongs? As the Muslim population grows will they burn churches here in the USA? Will they ever show tolerance towards other religions without dominating them? Will the end of church burning come only when the Christians submit to them as dhimmis and pay the jizya tax?

No, I don’t believe they will. We will see more churches taken over or burned as Islam grows as a world power.

Burned and desecrated Bibles:

It is interesting how the Muslims always play the victim and turn violent after even an accusation of their holy book being burned or desecrated, yet consider it acceptable for the holy books of other faiths to be defiled. How many Bibles have been burned over the centuriesup until present times?

A major line of severe thunderstorms passed over Central Virginia last night. In its fury it managed to take out the phone company’s DSL service, disabling our internet access for almost twenty-four hours.

For that reason no comments were approved until late this afternoon, nor was there any news feed last night. Yesterday’s news stories will simply be included in an extra-large news feed tonight.

Dymphna and I are now in the process of catching up with our email. Patience is advised.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

The video below is a discussion from FOX News comparing the media coverage of the murderous rampages by Major Nidal Malik Hasan and Staff Sergeant Robert Bales. It also discusses the differential treatment of their cases by the military authorities.

Our German translator JLH has compiled a report on the latest from Necla Kelek. First, his introduction [Note: The first sentence of the second paragraph has been updated to correct the wording]:

These two short articles are based on the latest book by Necla Kelek

Ms. Kelek is a former practicing Muslim whose not terribly devout family came to Germany when she was eight. Her father became increasingly Islamicized, and her mother did not really understand her daughter’s question, “When will I be free?”

She entered German society and succeeded on its terms — earning a university degree and becoming a sociologist. She has published a number of books and appears often in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, among other mainstream publications. She seems to have marked out a middle ground where she can be quite critical of Islam, but still be accepted as a scholar.

In one instance, when she was attacked by a number of mainstream sociologists, she was defended by the deaconess of feminism in Germany, Alice Schwarzer. Schwarzer, unlike NOW, etc, threw in her lot with women, not Islam.

Kelek’s new book is sure to attract much attention among the politically-minded, and the negative reactions will be muted by her own personal history and her previous achievements.

The first article below is from Politically Incorrect, lifted from a longer review in Freitag. The second is one blogger’s attempt to summarize the main points in her book.

Anyone who has sufficient knowledge of the requisite prayer rituals can become an imam. The training of priests in the Christian sense does not exist, because Islam is nor familiar with the office of (spiritual) pastor. In many mosques in Germany, imams with no theological training are preaching — often as an avocation. And even the 800 imams sent to Germany from Turkey possess — measured by local theological training — insufficient knowledge. They have read the Koran in Arabic, studied the hadiths and compared them to one another.

They draw their opinions from the "four sources of the law": first the Koran, second the Sunna, that is the customs of Mohammed as passed on in the hadiths, third from the consensus, i.e., the consistent opinion of the legal scholars, and fourth the conclusion by analogy, that is making judgments by analogy with verdicts of the past.

They act within a predetermined body of knowledge — there is no research or inquiry. Therefore, every imam can interpret the Koran as he wishes. The dignitary is distinguished from the individual believers through the respect accorded him on the basis of his position and influence. It is not, at any rate, an authority achieved through special education and training.

The fact that no organization, no hierarchy, no priestly class, no church stands between the believer and God has not led to greater spiritual independence or an individualization of the profession of faith, but rather to social control by the collective, represented by the imam as the highest authority.